Philadelphia Orchestra

Fritz Scheel, founding father and first conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra

The orchestra was founded in 1900 by Fritz Scheel, who also acted as its first conductor. The orchestra had its beginnings with a small group of musicians led by the pianist F. Cresson Schell (1857–1942).[1] In 1904, Richard Strauss guest conducted the orchestra in a program of his compositions, and in 1906 the Polish pianist Artur Rubenstein made his American debut with the orchestra. Additionally in 1906, the orchestra traveled to the White House to perform in an exclusive concert.

In February 1907, Leandro Campanari took over and served as interim conductor for a short time during Scheel's illness and after his death.[2] A flutist in the orchestra, August Rodemann, had stood in before Campanari's arrival. He started sabotaging the performances and Campanari was obliged to remove himself from a bad situation.[3]

In 1907, Karl Pohlig became music director and served until 1912. New music he programmed was unpopular with audiences, and revelations that he had an extra-marital affair with his secretary caused outrage. The orchestra cancelled his contract and gave him a year's salary ($12,000) in severance to avoid a suit from Pohlig alleging a conspiracy to oust him.[3][4]

Leopold Stokowski, music director, 1912–1938

Leopold Stokowski became music director in 1912 and brought the orchestra to national prominence. Under his guidance, the orchestra gained a reputation for virtuosity, and developed what is known as the "Philadelphia Sound." Stokowski left the orchestra in 1941, and did not return as a guest conductor for nearly 20 years.

The Philadelphia Orchestra on stage with Stokowski for the American premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, March 2, 1916.

In 1936 Eugene Ormandy joined the organization, and jointly held the post of principal conductor with Stokowski until 1938 when he became its sole music director. He remained as music director until 1980, after which he became Conductor Laureate. Ormandy conducted many of the orchestra's best-known recordings and took the orchestra on its historic 1973 tour of the People's Republic of China, where it was the first Western orchestra to visit that country in many decades.[5] The tour was highly successful and it has since returned for three additional successful tours.

Riccardo Muti became principal guest conductor of the orchestra in the 1970s, and assumed the role as Music Director from Ormandy in 1980, serving through 1992. His recordings with the orchestra included the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Alexander Scriabin, for the EMI and Philips labels.

Wolfgang Sawallisch succeeded Muti as Music Director from 1993 to 2003. He made a number of recordings with the orchestra of music of Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, among other composers, for the EMI label. However, the orchestra lost its recording contract with EMI during this time, which led to a musicians' strike for 64 days in 1996.[6][7] Near the end of Sawallisch's tenure, the orchestra released a self-produced set of recordings of the Schumann symphonies with Sawallisch conducting. In 2003, Sawallisch was named Conductor Laureate, and held the title until his death in 2013.

In 2003, Christoph Eschenbach succeeded Sawallisch as music director. This appointment was controversial because Eschenbach had not conducted the orchestra in over four years and there was a perceived lack of personal chemistry between him and the musicians prior to the appointment.[8][9][10] At least one early report tried to downplay this concern.[11] The orchestra returned to commercial recordings with Eschenbach, on the Ondine label. However, in October 2006, Eschenbach and the orchestra announced the conclusion of his tenure as music director in 2008, for a total of five years, the shortest tenure as music director in the history of the Philadelphia Orchestra, along with Pohlig.

After Eschenbach's departure, the Philadelphia Orchestra was without a music director for four years. In February 2007, Charles Dutoit was appointed chief conductor and artistic adviser for four seasons, starting in the fall of 2008 and running through the 2011–2012 season.[12][13] This move was made to provide an "artistic bridge" while the orchestra searched for its eighth music director.[13][14][15] According to news articles from August 2007, the orchestra had now devised a search process in which each musician in the orchestra would have a say in the choice of the next Music Director.[16][17]

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, principal conductor from 2012.

In December 2008, at the invitation of Dutoit,[18] Yannick Nézet-Séguin made his first guest-conducting appearance with the orchestra. He returned for a second series of concerts in December 2009.[19] In June 2010, Nézet-Séguin was appointed Music Director Designate, with a scheduled duration under that title from 2010 to 2012, with 2 weeks of scheduled appearances in the 2010–2011 season, and 5 weeks of scheduled appearances in the 2011–2012 season. Eventually, in 2012, he was appointed music director, succeeding Dutoit, who subsequently was named conductor laureate of the orchestra. Nézet-Séguin's initial contract as music director was for 5 seasons, with 7 weeks of scheduled concerts in the 2012–2012 season, 15 weeks in the next 2 seasons, and 16 weeks in the subsequent 2 seasons of his Philadelphia contract.[20] In January 2015, the orchestra announced the extension of Nézet-Séguin's contract to the 2021–22 season.[21][22] In June 2016, the orchestra announced a further extension of Nézet-Séguin's contract through the 2025–2026 season.[23] In December 2017, the orchestra announced the discontinuation of its relationship with Dutoit and the revocation of his title as its conductor laureate, with immediate effect, in the wake of allegations against him of sexual assault.[24]

Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra concert in Tianjin

The Philadelphia Orchestra's current concertmaster is David Kim.[25] Past concertmasters have included Norman Carol and Erez Ofer. Past Associate Conductors of the orchestra have included William Smith, Luis Biava, and Rossen Milanov.[26] In 2014, Stéphane Denève was appointed principal guest conductor, Cristian Măcelaru as conductor-in-residence, and Lio Kuokman as assistant conductor.[27][28] In 2016, Kuokman was succeeded as assistant conductor by Kensho Watanabe.[29] Erina Yashima has served as assistant conductor since 2019.

As of June 2016, the orchestra does not have its own chorus. The orchestra formerly worked with the Philadelphia Singers as its resident chorus until the Philadelphia Singers disbanded in May 2015.[30]

In addition to Muti, past principal guest conductors of the orchestra have included Stéphane Denève, who held the post from 2014 through 2020.[31] In December 2020, the orchestra announced the appointment of Nathalie Stutzmann as its next principal guest conductor, the first female conductor ever named to this Philadelphia post, effective with the 2021-2022 season, with a contract of 3 years.[32]

On April 16, 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra's board of directors voted to file for Chapter 11 reorganization due to the organization's large operational deficit. This was the first time that a major U.S. orchestra had filed for bankruptcy.[33][34] Amid mounting dissent from the musicians, Nézet-Séguin volunteered in August 2011 to add a week in his 2011–2012 season appearances.[35] On July 30, 2012, the orchestra announced that it had officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, effective that day.[36]

On September 30, 2016, the orchestra's players went out on strike, one hour before its scheduled Opening Night Gala concert.[37] The musicians issued a statement: 'We can no longer remain silent while we continue in a downward spiral.' The players rejected 1–2 percent per year increases offered by management. The base pay rate was noted as less than what other similar orchestras are offering. The strike was settled after three days when musicians approved a new contract on October 2, 2016. The new agreement is scheduled to raise the base salary to $137,800 and to increase the size of the orchestra to 97 over three years.[38]

In March 2018, the orchestra announced the appointment of Matías Tarnopolsky as its next president and chief executive officer,[39] in succession to Allison Vulgamore, who held the posts from 2010 through December 2017.

The Orchestra's first recordings were made for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey, in 1917, when Leopold Stokowski conducted performances of two of Brahms's Hungarian Dances. The historic first electrical recordings were also made by Victor in Camden, in April 1925, beginning with Saint-Saëns' Danse macabre. Later, in 1926, Victor began recording the Orchestra in the Academy of Music. Stokowski led the ensemble in experimental long-playing, high-fidelity, and even stereophonic sessions in the early 1930s for RCA Victor and Bell Laboratories. They recorded the soundtrack for Walt Disney's Fantasia in multi-track stereophonic sound in 1939–40.

Arturo Toscanini made a series of recordings for RCA Victor with the orchestra in 1941 and 1942. The masters for these records were damaged during the electroplating process, resulting in unusually high surface noise and distortion and they were not approved for release. In 1963, after extensive electronic editing, RCA Victor released one of the recordings on LP, the Schubert Symphony in C Major. In 1977, RCA issued all of the recordings in a 5 LP boxed set and they were later digitally remastered and reissued by RCA on CD in 1992 and again, in 2006.

The Orchestra remained with RCA Victor through 1942. Following a settlement of a recording ban imposed by the American Federation of Musicians, the Orchestra joined Columbia Records in 1944, recording some of the dances from Borodin's Prince Igor. The orchestra returned to RCA Victor in 1968 and made its first digital recording, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, for RCA in 1979. The Orchestra has also recorded for EMI and Teldec.

In May 2005, the Philadelphia Orchestra announced a three-year recording partnership with the Finnish label Ondine, the Orchestra's first recording contract in 10 years. The resumption of a regular recording program was one of Christoph Eschenbach's stated priorities as music director. A number of recordings have been released since November 2005, to international acclaim.

On September 21, 2006 the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first major United States orchestra to sell downloads of its performances directly from the orchestra's website. While other American orchestras had downloads of their music on the internet, the Philadelphia Orchestra said it was the first to offer the downloads without a distributor.[40] In 2010, the orchestra abandoned this practice and formed a partnership with IODA, a digital distribution company with downloads available through a variety of online retailers, including iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody, and eMusic.

In other media, musicians from the orchestra were featured in a documentary film by Daniel Anker, Music from the Inside Out, which received theatrical release and television airings.[42][43]

• 
  Academy of Music, the orchestra's home, 1900–2001.
• 
  Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra's summer home since 1976.
• 
  Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (opened 2001), Verizon Hall is the orchestra's current home.
• 
  Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, the orchestra's summer residency since the venue first opened in 1966.

• Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Eugene Ormandy recording)

• Jacobson, Bernard (2015). Star Turns and Cameo Appearances. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. pp. 178–208. ISBN 978-1-58046-541-0[1]
• Ardoin, John (1999). The Philadelphia Orchestra: A Century of Music. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-56639-712-4.
• Kupferberg, Herbert (1969). Those Fabulous Philadelphians. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-491-00394-0. OCLC 28276.
• Kurnick, Judith K (1992). Riccardo Muti: Twenty Years in Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Orchestra. ISBN 978-0-8122-1445-1. OCLC 25883790.
• Clark, Sedgwick (2003). The Philadelphia Orchestra Celebrates Sawallisch 1993–2003. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Orchestra.
• Marion, John Francis (1984). Within These Walls: A History of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Academy of Music/Philadelphia Orchestra. OCLC 11404370.
• Peralta, Phyllis (2006). Philadelphia Maestros: Ormandy, Muti, Sawallisch. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-487-8.

• Media related to Philadelphia Orchestra at Wikimedia Commons
• Philadelphia Orchestra Official website
• The Philadelphia Singers Official website
• The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Ondine label
• Philadelphia Orchestra at AllMusic
• Philadelphia Orchestra at Art of the States
• Philadelphia Orchestra on NPR, Includes commentary by Christopher Eschenbach on the nine Beethoven symphonies for NPR's Performance Today from 2006.
• Finding aid to the Philadelphia Orchestra 1966 Latin American Tour collection Ms. Coll. 929 at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
• Robin Hood Dell Orchestra discography
• Philadelphia Orchestra recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.